Sunday, January 24, 2010

Though this is my second attempt baking in my new OTG, it was so much of fun & excitement. I was sitting next to the oven throughout the 20mins of baking, peeping through the glass door :)

The recipe is from here But I modified a bit....I used 1/2 cup wheat flour with 1/2 of APF added pepper powder, still the cookies turned out soo gud. The next time I'l try it fully with wheat flour. So here is the recipe of the cookies that impressed everyone at home.

Ingredients:

Maida/All purpose flour - 1/2 cup

Wheat flour(atta) - 1/2 cup

Pepper powder - 1/2 tbsp

Cumin seeds - 1 tbsp

Baking soda - a pinch

Salt - to taste

Sugar - 1/2 tsp

Oil - 3 tbsp

Milk - as reqd to knead to a stiff dough (I used 1/4 cup)

Method:

1. In a bowl, mix the flour, baking soda, sugar, salt and oil. Add the milk and knead to a stiff dough till its not sticky.

2. Roll the dough to about 2mms thick, but this didnt work out for me as I cudnt roll it evenly so what I did was to press it in the roti maker, this way it was easy and quick!

3. Using a cookie cutter cut into round shapes, I used a lid to cut it. Now bring together the remaining scrapings, roll out again and repeat the process till the entire dough gets over.

4. Pre heat the oven at 180 deg C for 10mins. Grease the baking tray, arrange the cookies and place the tray in the center of the preheated oven and bake for 20mins.

5. Remove the cookies from the oven, allow it to cool and then store them in air tight containers.

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Wanted to clear some of bookmarked recipes and this came to me at first sight. I had bookmarked SJ's garlic yogurt sauce long back and had totally forgotten abt it. I tried and it was a nice combo even for plain rice - a mix of chutney and raita it is...totally luved the taste!

Ingredients:

Curd/yogurt - 1 cup

Grated coconut - 2 tbsp

Garlic cloves -2

Jeera - 1 tsp

Red Chillies - 1

Salt to taste

Oil - 2 tsp

Method:

1.Heat oil in a tawa. Add garlic and saute till it turns light brown.

2.Now add the red chillies and jeera saute it for 3mins.Roast coconut for 2mins and allow it to cool.

3.Blend the above with 1/2 cup of yogurt to a fine paste. Add the remaining yogurt to the paste, salt to taste. Mix well.

4.Serve with hot rice. This will go well even with rotis and pulav's!

But I cudnt resist myself so drank half of it myself before I served them with rice :)

Method:

First roast moong dhal and keep aside.Rinse rice and add it along with moong dal in a pressure cooker. Add 1 cup milk and 2 cups water.Make sure your pressure cooker is big enough the water milk and rice mixture should just be to 1/4th of the cooker so that it will not overflow.

Pressure cook it for 3-4 whistles until soft. Mash it well with a laddle and add the remaining milk say 1/2 cup of milk in intervals twice and mix well.Allow it to boil for 3mins until its thick.Add required salt.

Add coconut, ghee and give a quick stir.Add the ghee fried cashews and switch it off.

Serve it with pongal curry / kuzhambu the best accompaniment!

My Notes:

Don't skip coconut here as its the only main ingredient that gives flavour to the pongal.

Any veggie gravy will get along with this very well, so when combined and had, no salt is required!

Wednesday, January 13, 2010

The oats and nuts combo is packed fully with nutrients, fiber and protein.Its healthy and yummy fudge.

Sugarfree Dates, Oats and Nuts Fudge Recipe - Ingredients

Instant Oats - 1 cup

Mixed nuts( I used a combination of almonds, peanuts and walnuts) - 1/2 cup

Dates - roughly 13

Ghee / Oil - reqd to shape them

Cardamom powder - a pinch (optional)

Method:

Dry roast oats for 2-3 mins until nutty aroma arises.Allow it to cool down and powder the oats in a mixer.Set aside.

Now grind the nuts to a coarse powder seperately . Grind the dates to a smooth paste seperately.

Mix all the ingredients together, add ghee / oil enough to roll them to a dough.Then press the dough with chapathi roller kept in between butter paper. Press firmly to flatten it. Then cut into squares and store in a clean airtight container and enjoy your guilt free snack!

This keep well for about 3-4 days in room temperature itself. You can have this as a snack or even for breakfast.

My Notes:

You can also use milk instead of ghee but the shelf period is less when milk is used.

Monday, January 11, 2010

This flavourful channa biriyani is filling for a meal and rich in protein and fiber. I was happy to see each grain of rice separated the way I wanted.......This is going to be my keeper for biriyani so I measured everything accurate and here goes the recipe from my kitchen...You can pair it with carrot raita or onion raita.

Friday, January 8, 2010

I am not much of a tea person....But this cold weather makes me crave for hot tea with some biscuits during evenings and I made this masala tea on one such saturday! And it was on a dull cloudy evening....Only when I was editing the pic my mother said the pic wud have been more appealing with the froth in the tea....not that patient to click it again so posting this itself.

2.Bring it to a boil again.Simmer for 2 mins, by this time the spices would have blended with milk.Now filter the milk and discard the spices with tea powder. Add sugar and your masala tea is ready.Serve hot!

Monday, January 4, 2010

I had a great weekend......shopping, relatives home visit, lazying at home, friends comeover and a lot more.......that I find it very hard to get back to the usual routine....Have started waiting for pongal hols :) Hmm coming to todays menu, I made this sooji roti long back and it was lying in my drafts for around 6months, so pulled it out. Wheat Sooji/Rava roti, is instant it can be done just like that.....Most of my recent/future recipes will be quick...am so lazy and now blame it on work and the kiddo :) And am sure this wheat sooji roti will be a better alternative to rava upma!